Video Gamers Podcast - [Deep Dive] Stunning Space Marine 2 - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Gaming Hosts Ryan and Josh are back with an incredible deep dive of the recent hit release of Space Marine 2. We’re entering the Grim Dark and breaking down all the important gaming aspects of Space Marine 2. It’s gorgeous yes, but is it fun? How does the combat hold up, and is there more to this video game than just slaughtering hordes of Tyrannids? This is one gaming discussion you don’t want to miss from your favorite video games podcast! Thanks to our LEGENDARY Supporter: Ole Jake (and to everyone who supports this podcast) Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Discord: https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU12YOMnAQwqFZEdfXv9c3Q   Visit us on the web: https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Courage and honor, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers Podcast. On today's epic episode we're donning our ultramarine armor, loading up our heavy bolters and entering the grimdacle of the Adeptus Astartes, the Kalgar to my Titus, the chainsword to my heavy bolter, it's Ryan. For the Emperor. In the Omni Sia, right? Something like that. I'm not quite sure. This is my new marine voice. Oh, okay. Here we go. I'm totally going to talk like this the whole pod, I swear. Oh, no. This is changing already. I don't know what this is evolving into. Oh, man. Yeah, I had to do that for the courage and honor part because, you know,

saying that in my excited squeaky voice just doesn't work. All right. Well, welcome in, everybody. Today's episode, we are covering Space Marine 2. I know that we were hyped for this game, Ryan. This game's been on our radar since the second we heard about it. We are going to break down all things Space Marine 2. We have played it. There's a lot to talk about. I know that you and I both have a lot of thoughts on this game. So we're going to get into it. But we have a little piece of great news, Ryan. We do.

We have to thank a new Rare supporter that went to MultiplayerSquad.com and signed up to support the podcast and that is this fine person known as Lighthouse Bengal. So thank you Lighthouse Bengal for signing up with rare status, supporting the show and making sure that we can bring it to the

world. Yeah, applause all around. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Alright Ryan, so listen, if somebody else wants to be as awesome as Lighthouse Bengal, how do they do that? Well, other than just hopping in our beautiful Discord, the great community come in, say hi, hang out. Everybody says good morning every morning.

Awesome place to be. If you're not in there, you should be. Other than that, you can hop on to multiplayer squad.com uh we have patreon support starting as low as five bucks a month you get a lot of awesome cool perks perks in the discord i just mentioned um early access to episodes a lot of cool stuff again starts as low as five bucks a month really helps us out uh keep the lights on if you will and then if you guys can hop onto socials like subscribe do all that really good stuff um on your uh apple podcast or uh spotify do that as well really helps us out

so get on there and then uh it helps us bring you all this great amazing fun talking about crazy games like uh space marine 2 yes definitely yeah, again, that website is MultiplayerSquad.com if you want to support the show. You can sign up for a month. You can cancel at any time. We really do appreciate it. And we never get upset if somebody's like, hey, I canceled.

We're just thankful for the support on that too. So all right, Ryan, I touched on this in the beginning. We were hyped for Space Marine 2. Oh, yeah. I think we both saw it. We both were like, oh my goodness, this game looks incredible. I want to kind of just touch on that hype level because it's always fun to get excited about a game that's coming out. And man, have we had a lot of games coming out lately that I know we've both been very excited for. So I always

like to kind of go into it with like, where were we at with it? How excited were we? Why were we excited? That kind of thing. I know for me at least that I, going into Space Marines 2, had hopes that this is potential game of the year material. Way back when, and you can check out this episode, we did a draft where we each picked a game of the year. We had a fake budget of $200 that we could bid on games that were coming out in 2024. And I landed Space Marine 2 because I was pretty darn confident that this game was going to be up there.

So naturally, my hype level was very high for this game. We always mentioned it right in the thick of things like Black Myth Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws, Astro Bot, the second we heard about that, Avowed, which got delayed. It was in that same conversation for all these games. So I know that's kind of how I felt coming into this, but where were you at with your hype level for it? I would say the same. I know I was personally really hyped. August and September was wild. I mean, like you just said, we had Black Myth we were cracking out on and then Astro Bot, and then I had to bang through that to give you my PlayStation so you could rip through it. And yeah, there was a lot of hype for a lot of games in the last few weeks,

but this one was definitely up there. It's weird though, as excited as I was, it did kind of get lost in the mix for me. I don't know if it did a little bit for you as well, but next thing I know, I was like, oh wait, Space Marine came out and I was able to, I bought on and you gave me a hard time,

but I got the early access and was able to get in a little bit. I was like, I'm getting in now, baby. It is weird that you mentioned that because I do feel like it did kind of get lost in the shuffle of Black Myth, Wukong, Astro Bot. We didn't even get a chance to play Star Wars Outlaws and we were very excited for that game to come out as well. So it is a little weird and I don't know if that's telling or not. I guess people will find out when we get later on in the show and we give our thoughts on Space Marine 2. But I do remember thinking like these other games kind of jumped to the forefront and then Space

Marine 2 kind of took a backseat in the hype level, you know, and we pushed this to play Astro Bot first. Yeah. So, you know, it's one of those things. So I guess, what were you hoping that this game was going to be? Without spoiling any thoughts on the game, I know the natural, for me, the natural thought was like, oh, this just looks like a really graphically impressive Helldivers 2. Uh-huh. You know, and so I think in my brain, I just went, dude, are you giving me Helldivers 2 with killing these swarms of Tyranids

with these big, beefy Space Marines instead of these kind of wimpy hell diver guys that just get exploded at the drop of a hat? I think that's kind of what I was hoping for. So before you ever even booted this game up, what were your hopes as to the kind of game it would be? Something like that. I was thinking if I couldn't relive that glory of kind of a dark gritty game with all this new crazy tech uh with the swarm tech and the beautiful graphics and cinematics and and hopefully an awesome you know intuitive gameplay you know get that the glory days of like old uh gears of war and you with that flair of, you know, liberty and stuff with Helldivers. So I was hoping

to kind of get that feeling again, especially with the multiplayer and being able to play cooperatives or do the operations and stuff like that online. So I was hoping to get some sort of feeling like that again. That kind of tough, raw, meaty feeling of just killing

bugs, you know? Gearsy feeling of just killing bugs you know gears of war i think is the natural kind of comparison it looks like it kind of it looks like it yeah and with the being and that's the thing it's that heaviness for like the characters and yeah everybody kept saying well i don't know everybody but i know our thinking was and some and we definitely heard this was like oh this is gears of war mixed with hell, and we definitely heard this, was like, oh, this is Gears of War mixed with Helldivers. And it's like, anytime you say that, like, oh my goodness, man, you're going to get me excited about a game. I will say this is not like Gears of War mixed with Helldivers.

And that's not anything against the game itself, but I do think that that was kind of a common misconception. But I do think I'm with you in that, like that Gears of War just heaviness, the slamming into walls, the visceral like kills. I mean, you know, with the Lancer gun and Gears of War compared to like the chainsword and the executions for Space Marine 2, I think it's a natural thing to think that, but I do think that these games are actually vastly different in that regard too. So not that that's bad, but I do think that these games are actually vastly different in that regard too. So not that that's bad, but did you feel that way too? Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I think it's,

it's its own game. It's, it truly is. All right. So let's, let's nerd out a little bit, Ryan. We got to, we got to get into the nerd talk. All right. Lower. Yeah. So this is a Warhammer 40K game. This is set in that universe. Do you know anything about that universe at all? Like, are you a diehard 40K fan that has just been waiting anxiously for this game to come out so you can dive into all that nerdiness? Or are you just a complete noob when it comes to that stuff? I am a super noob. I haven't played

any previous Warhammer games. I've never played, you know, anything to do with Warhammer. I always thought it looked cool. I always was like, why are those dudes in these big giant suits? You know, I thought it looked kind of goofy. I'm like, those look goofy, but I know people are really, really into it. If they love, you know, if they love it, they love it. Yeah. I do not know very much about Warhammer at all. Now, I am a fantasy nerd and I'm a sci-fi nerd. So you mix the two together and this definitely piques my interest. I mean, this kind of universe is right up my alley. I've just never really gotten into it. I know that like I have played Vermintide one and two, which are both set in that universe as well. Okay. I'm a big fan of the Vermintide games. I think they're a ton of fun with people, but even having played like a lot of those two

games, I still don't know nothing, man. You know, like this universe is so big and we see it a lot. I mean, it's kind of getting more and more mainstream with like Henry Cavill, for instance, has come out and said like, he's a huge 40K fan. We have a lot of people in our Discord server that are really into it. People that, you know, do the miniatures and all that stuff. I was a big D&D nerd. And whenever I would go to like a card shop or something like that, there was always like the Warhammer 40K section. I was always impressed. I'm like, dude, this looks super cool, man. These are cool. Yeah. But the reason I mentioned that is

we are going into this game not as fans or people that know a lot about the lore of the 40K universe. Yeah. So understand that our viewpoints of this game and stuff are coming from people that are not into the lore and are not kind of geeked out by the different factions that you do see of this game and stuff are coming from people that are not into the lore and are

not kind of geeked out by the different factions that you do see in this game. Like, you know, you do see the Adeptus Mechanicus, I think is what it's called. I think those guys look super neat. And then I kind of feel bad for him because I'm like, what have you guys been through? Yeah, exactly. You got all these weird robotic tentacles coming out looking like doc ock up in here you know but i'm just like you poor people you know but yes we do not have that basis so you know whereas somebody that is really into the the 40k universe might really geek out on this you know with how accurate some of this lore and representations and stuff like that are.

Do you think it would help if you were a mega fan of 4DK in this game? Like, I'm reminded of Hogwarts Legacy, right? We played that game. You loved Hogwarts Legacy. You didn't actually play it with us at the time because it was before you were on the pod. But, you know, going into that game, I said, hey, I like Harry Potter just fine, but I'm not like a huge fan of Harry Potter or anything. I think they're great movies. I've never read the books, but I think it's cool. Whereas Paul was like, oh, dude, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. So I think that's a good game to kind of say. In contrast, I think for Hogwarts Legacy, if you were a fan of Harry Potter, it definitely upped the enjoyment level for you. But you didn't have to be to enjoy that game either because the game just kind of stood on its own.

So for Space Marine 2, do you think it's the same? I think so because oddly enough, I am a super Harry Potter nerd. And so having the contrast of the two, I know nothing about Space Marine and Warhammer and stuff and playing that and experiencing not knowing the world. And then with Hogwarts Legacy, I mean, I watch Harry Potter probably twice a week, three times a week. It's kind of a go-to-sleep show for me or movie.

So I always have the movies on. So playing the game, getting to see the halls of Hogwarts and going to the courtyard and the garden and going to Hogsmeade and doing all those things that you know about in the show, you pick up those finer details so much more than somebody who doesn't know any of the history behind the subject matter. So in Warhammer, I'm sure the people that are just super, super nerds about it absolutely loved it. Got to see such a graphically beautiful representation of their little teeny figures that they battle with with their friends. So I'm sure they- Brought to life. Yeah, brought to life and controllable. They get to play it now. So traversing through that world, getting to kill the hordes,

getting to be the angels. So yeah, I'm sure they just loved it. Same way I did with Hogwarts. Yeah, I do think that having played this game, if you are a fan of Warhammer, this is probably an absolute must-play game for you because it does seem like they are very true to like the lore of the game the characters um you know i talk about the adeptus mechanicus i didn't know what that was at

first i kind of very quickly figured it out but there's even little things like you know when you're in your base there's these weird little floating cherub angel things but they've got like cybernetic eyes and they're all just jacked up and stuff and i'm'm like, I bet you there's somebody that knows exactly what the heck these things are and is nerding out over the fact that they're just sitting there like floating around, you know, that kind of stuff too. So I definitely think that that will help,

but it is not necessary. You know, I, I will say having played the game, I don't think that that's a requirement at all. I think this game stands on its own two legs apart from, you know, your involvement in like 40 K or something like that. So for sure. All right, Ryan, let's dive into the game. Why don't you start us off by reading the official Steam

description of the game to kind of put it out there for people as how is this game is actually described? Heck yeah. So am I reading this in Titus voice or something? No. I mean, it probably would sound better. I know, right? Okay, so Steam description here. Embody the superhuman skill and brutality of a space marine. Unleash deadly abilities and devastating weaponry to obliterate the relentless Tyranid swarms. I keep wanting to say, what is the Helldivers one? Terminids.

Terminids, yeah. I know, they're so close to each other. I'm going to do it the whole episode, just so everybody knows. But let me finish this here. Defend the Imperium in spectacular third-person action in solo or multiplayer modes. All right.

So takeaway there, you can play this game solo. There is cooperative and PVP options in this game. You and I did get a chance to play through a little bit of it together. I also played through with our buddy, Andy. He and I actually played through the entire campaign together. You and I did a few of the operations together and kind of checked out that side of the game as well. So just so that people know, we are going to dive into the gameplay, the graphics, the little bit of the story and the different modes of the games and stuff like that. There apparently are a couple of big reveals in this game for people that are fans

of the 40K universe. We will not spoil that stuff for you in that regard. So, you know, yes, we're going to talk about different aspects of the game, but we're going to do our best to keep it spoiler free and definitely avoid any of those like, you know, story spoilers and things about the campaign that really made a few people nerd out as well. Like, oh, I can't believe they did this or, you know, they had this in their kind of thing. So that's your warning as far as that goes, but also kind of, like like i said the angle we're going to try to take with this uh as well all right ryan you you bought the uh premiere edition of this game so you got early access yeah bro did you see my armor i did it was actually

i'm a little jealous i'm not gonna lie um but you know okay so you boot up space marine two you know you see what i personally think might be some of the best graphics that i have ever seen in a video game and i feel like i feel like i'm saying that more and more often lately which really makes me happy as like a graphics nerd for games too um but the game kind of dumps you into this tutorial mission you know it definitely is teaching you the ropes is like what it's like to be a space marine um giving you a little bit of backstory uh you do play as uh i don't know if he's a commander or captain or i think it's captain maybe captain titus but listen you play as titus whoever that guy is he's he's definitely a tough guy hero

character. Yeah. He becomes Lieutenant. Lieutenant. That's right. Okay. Also, I don't know what that is. Is that the same as a Lieutenant? Dude, I got no idea. Okay. So see, there you go. You know, as much as I do, but you are playing as Titus in this, it dumps you into this tutorial mission, teaches you the kind of the ropes of, of you know gunplay and melee combat you know movement and stuff like that what were your very initial impressions for this game well um aside from what you already said with the graphics you know just being utterly breathtaking when when you load it up um i i felt it took me a minute to really kind of get the controls. I'm not sure if it was a little tricky for you, but just kind of the parrying ability, the movement stuff,

just getting used to that kind of slow, methodical, kind of clunky movement. Not that the game itself was clunky, but you're just this giant beast of a man running through this planet. So I felt a little bit uh delayed on that getting into the flow but kind of once you get through that um it's just the biggest thing to me you know and i know i said other than that but the graphics man like it just was it was unreal looking around you go in and on the tutorial you start punching that flower head thing to open up that pathway and i'm like

that was like the coolest thing ever just this first little section where i'm just beating on this flower and all these big things uh shrink down and i'm running through and and uh that swarm tech is just something else dude it is it is bananas we're gonna get into that here in a little bit when we kind of get into the gameplay and how the swarm tech kind of kicks in there i will say for me my my very first impression of this game was just oh my gosh dude look look at look at this look look at that over there like i mean we knew going in we knew from the trailers we knew from the the gameplay demos and stuff like that that this game was going to be a looker but experiencing it as you're playing the game, when you were controlling the character is always just so much more impressive

than like watching a gameplay trailer. And I do remember thinking like this game just feels gritty to me. Like it feels heavy. It feels dark, you know? And i think that's what they're going for you know when you i mean it's called the grim dark you know in the 40k universe and space marines are these just hulking like behemoth dudes how long did it take you to realize that your space marine is like eight feet tall a while at first i'm like i know i'm thinking it was just the armor i'm like wait this dude's just massive giant man you know beast of a man running through there. And it did. The word I like to use for these types is just weight.

It just felt like it had weight to it. Everything you did had weight. Even just the movement. You clunk along, trotting through the area. Yeah, you feel like you weigh about 1,500 pounds, dude. You feel the weight of that armor. Again, your guy is like eight feet tall. It took me a couple hours.

I think it's until you get to your actual base or the battle barge is what they call it. And I'm walking around. And then I walk past some normal soldier. And I literally stopped next to him. And I looked over and I was like, whoa! I was like, dude, oh my, god wait it's not you it's me like eight feet tall why do they have an army of little people yeah yeah so but yeah i mean i think

that was my initial impression of this game was wow and then oh my goodness they really captured the weight the grittiness the darkness of this game um it is not a pleasant universe like this is not a universe i think i'd want to hang out in you know um and and live in as far as that goes i don't know what it's cool looking union he's in like what are his days off you know i don't know and then every single person in this universe is scarred up jacked up like, like missing limbs, cybernetics. Like, I'm sorry, people. I don't know what happened in this universe to make things go south like this, but our thoughts are with you. All right. So let's actually dive into the graphics a little bit. I mean, we just covered Astro Bot and kind of the first thing we talked about was, oh my goodness,

the audio. We got to talk about the audio for Astro Bot, right? And I feel like if we were going to talk about the thing that stands out with Space Marine 2 is naturally, first impression, is the graphics, right? I mean, we've already said they're phenomenal. It's not only that the graphics are really good, but the vistas, like the different planets that you go to, um,

again, no spoilers, but I'll just say the last level of the game is graphically one of the most beautiful levels I think I've ever seen in a video game. Like it really just kind of blew my mind. Um, so is this the best graphics you have ever seen? Ooh,

that's a tough one. It is tough, right? I'm asking you because I'm still trying to make up my mind. Yeah. I'm trying to think, I mean, cause we played some really,

uh, you know, graphically amazing games this year so far. And like you said, like we just keep saying, wow. And keep it up devs. If you want to keep making games that look this

dang good i am all for it i'll tell you that much right now but uh it's it's got to be top three for sure of all time i mean it just every every part of it i know even when we were running uh we were running some operations last night and i stop and i look up at the walls and they just got hieroglyphs all all over them and i'm just looking through this kind of story of hieroglyphs on a wall just in this random section of a map of a mission we're running and so there are so many points like that where you just stop and you look around and i'm sure over time it kind of gets dull but you know it's good when every level you play there's spots where you just sit back and go, whoa. I played this with Andy.

We played the campaign together, and there were probably at least a dozen times when we were playing this game that we both just stopped and looked out over a vista. Dude, look at that. I mean, literally. And if I didn't notice it first, he would notice it. And you just see his character like standing on the edge of this cliff. And he's just like, dude. And then I would walk over and I'd be like, oh my goodness, man. Like, this is unbelievable.

For me, this won't make a lot of sense to you. But for me, for people that have played Elden Ring, Elden Ring is very similar in these monstrous vistas that the game has where you just look up and you see like the Erd tree and you're just like, oh my goodness, dude, this is unbelievable. Space Marine 2 is like that as well, but it is so much more high fidelity in its like graphical presentation. For me, I think the best way to describe it is, I will say it's not like the prettiest game that I've ever seen, but I do think that it is the most detailed graphics I have ever seen. That's the word, detailed.

Yeah. Like, honestly, if you, you know, when you're in the battle barge and you see these Adeptus Mechanicus and you stare at them and you get close to them, you can literally see like the grooves in their little tentacle arm metal arm things that they have you know you can see the cybernetic eyes like glowing in their head even enemies that you fight like you know if you kill it like an armored enemy you can look at their armor and you can see like just scratch marks on the armor and you know like where they've been shot where the armor's been you know had pieces torn out of it and stuff like that that is where it really really is impressive yeah for sure even uh last night i was just playing around i'm in the battle barge and you know you got your kind of jet pack looking things on the back with the you know the heat exhaust

coming out those little ports so i'm looking and i see it's kind of blurry you see like the distortion visually and so then i start angling the camera and my guy to see if it distorts the character that's in front of me and it does as i moved and so there's so much thought and detail put into all these weird just little things that all meld together to just graphically made such an amazing game. Yeah. And it's not just like the resolution. It is the actual gameplay. You and I were doing an operation last night. This isn't spoilery really, but at one point we'd knock over this. It had to have been a 100, 200 foot, just gigantic statue. Yeah, that was awesome. And this thing just slowly starts to fall. And then it felt like you

were knocking over like a skyscraper, man. And it was just so impressive. And then after it fell, the cloud of smoke and the ground shaking and the rubble and all that stuff was just, to me, it is probably the most detailed graphics I've ever seen. Like I don't necessarily want to say it's the best looking game I've ever seen, but I don't necessarily want to say it's the best looking game I've ever seen, but I'm with you. I think it's a top three. Like if you want just a, oh my goodness, technology has come a long way.

This is definitely the game to do that with. Yeah, absolutely. And even like you said, knocking over that statue, when you look back down, you see the bridge that you blew out and there's like metal and rebar there, you know, realistically how it would look with

if that went through so so there's those details too to where when things happen everything you see has a purpose and there's a reason it's there and it just it makes everything like i said it just comes together yeah all right listen we're gonna move on to story next but we're going to take a short break and then we will be right back all right ryan so this is this is the part where i think we're going to upset like the people that really are fans of warhammer 40k because we're going to talk about this story and i know listen listen we get it okay if you know this story this is probably like the most like awesome thing that you have seen and played and come across. But I'll be honest, man, this story to make a whole lot of sense to me. I mean, you know, we're not going to spoil the story, of course, but it's like, did the story make sense to you? Honestly, I was following it, kind of, but it was also kind of like, all right, I just want to go kill stuff and see all this cool action and explosions to me.

That was me. It was like watching an 80s or 90s action movie with Arnold or Sylvester or something. It was just like, yeah, this is a story, cool, but let's get to the fun stuff, the explosions. Yeah, can you guys quit talking? Just go shoot people, right? That's honestly the, and I, we apologize. Yeah. We're sorry. We're sorry. We're ignorant to it all, but that's how, that's how we, you know, we don't know it. Yes. And so I, again, if you were a fan,

I think the story will probably mean a lot more to you. I did not even know you and I were talking about this before we hit record. I did not know that captain Titus is like a, like a main figure in the 40 K universe. Like I just thought he was just some dude that this game was like, you know, focused around, around. So,

um, you know, again, there are villains that you will come across in this game. Again, we don't want to spoil anything because you know, if that's a reveal to people that know, then, you, then we'll let that be a reveal. There are characters and planets and ships and all this stuff that I think would probably resonate with people that, again,

are fans of this universe. And the story kind of takes you through some of that. But apart from the 40K universe, completely separate from that, this story really didn't make a lot of sense to me. It was not something that enhanced the game, in my opinion. It gave me a reason to do what I was doing. But this is not anything that I'm going to remember as far as like, oh, cool. Like this was the most like transformative character, you know, thing like in Red Dead, right? With like Arthur Morgan, like that.

It didn't have any of that to me to where I felt like I was invested in any of that stuff. Was it the same for you? I mean, did you feel like it heightened the game at all? Yeah, I mean, there was parts of it where I'm, you know, a cinematic section would happen. I'd be like, oh, okay, all right, I'm in on this, let's go, you know, and it would hype me up. But I didn't have that bond or connection with, you know, the characters and the environments like you do in a lot of other games that are heavy story based. Not to say that I didn't like it, not to say that it wasn't well done or, or anything,

but I just don't think that was the strongest part, you know, of the game. Yeah. I, you did touch on the cinematics and I do want to say some of the cinematics in this game were freaking awesome. Oh yeah. You know, like regardless of what we know about the story or the characters or not, like there were some like very good cinematics in this game to where I felt like I was watching just a top tier sci-fi epic battle going on, you know, and it's just a spectacle, uh, in that regard. So that's it for story. Like I said, for, for us, it didn't really add a lot to the game cinematics wow you know really cool to watch and stuff like that but again if if you are if you know the universe i think you'd probably get a lot more

out of that and again our apologies for not being able to geek out with you in that regard exactly and if you want to let us know about something you know come hop into our discord or something let us know we'd love to chat about it and because it was interesting we're just we're not informed on it we just haven't been part of that you know universe i i will say i'm fascinated by the 40k universe oh yeah like honestly so and as a fantasy slash sci-fi nerd i would love to actually know more about it but it's kind of intimidating at this point yeah how old are these guys man different factions i don't know dude like there's these weird factions i had to look up what the heck an Adeptus Mechanicus was. They're referencing the Omni-Saya.

You got to reboot a computer at one point, and they're like, we have to do the rites of regeneration or the rites of Mechanicus or something, because it's a computer. I love how those computers, too, look like they're straight out of the 90s. Oh, with a skull with a skull just emblazoned yeah yeah so all right let's move into the gameplay this this is where the heart of this game is at obviously i mean ryan we're freaking ultra marines yeah we're eight foot tall armor-clad titans of death and destruction

we've got scars galore we've got weird things poking out of our foreheads that look like tubes or i mean i don't know man like cybernetics or something going on we knew from the trailers that we were going to just be slaughtering hordes of these creatures called tyranids. Hey, man, you and I, we're professional hell divers, right? We know what it means to slaughter hordes of bugs, okay? So I felt like going into this, I was just like, man, we got this down. Ain't nothing. We're experts at this point.

So let's talk about the gameplay of this game, because I do feel like there's a lot to talk about. But at the same time, there's not as much to talk about as I think I was hoping for in this game as well. Okay. So combat. Combat is the heart of the gameplay. Honestly, it's everything in this game. You are just, you're a death machine. You are a harbinger of destruction. And these Tyranids chose the wrong people to mess with, man. I thought this game was going to be nearly a pure shooter, all the gears of war. Now, it doesn't mean you can't get up close and personal, right? But I thought going into this game that that's what this game was going to be. Did you kind of feel the same way? I felt so too. I felt like it was

going to play that way as well. And I think we learned that it does not. It does not. No. I mean, and again, that's not a bad thing, but I was amazed at how much melee combat is in this game and how important melee combat is in this game. how important melee combat is in this game that's the word yeah it's very important yeah and so the reason for that being is that you are surrounded by hordes of these freaking tyranids and if you are trying to just shoot these guys you're gonna run out of ammo real fast like real fast and ammo in this game is not super plentiful no i was surprised by that too you i was running around when we were doing our operation i was like what what dude you you had ammo you're like yeah i'm out of ammo and i

was like i am too man what are we gonna do and so we bust out our swords or our combat knives and just you know go to town until we can find some but it it was very scarce. Yeah. And so I would say that this game, whereas I thought this was going to be like 95% range combat with that occasional 5% melee or kill move or something like that, I'd almost say it's like 40, 60 range to melee. Is that a fair kind of percentage? I mean, I know that probably sounds crazy to people is that a fair kind of percentage i mean i know that probably sounds crazy to people but like that's kind of how i played that's yeah i mean between that and then like your um executions and finisher moves you're you know you're up close and personal melee there and then you got other guys around you might as well attack them you know with the

melee when you're you know right next to them So I definitely think it does have that flow of shoot, shoot a little bit of range here. And then once you get in close and you do your executions and you start to start going to town, um, that all that melee comes into play. Yeah. I will say the melee is super satisfying. So this is not like a negative by any means. It was just caught me off guard as far as like how much that melee combat was important. I mean, if you think about it, when you are surrounded or you have a horde of 20 weird little alien creatures coming at you, you can spend three bullets on each one. Or when they get close to you, you can start swinging your chainsword and just mow through them like they are grass. So it just makes sense when you're trying to defend yourself from these hordes that you're just going to whip out the old trusty chainsword and start just hacking away, man. The other thing in this game that goes along with the ranged combat and the melee combat

is that they do allow you to dodge roll now it does not feel smooth like it does in elden ring but then again you're wearing armor that is about the bulkiest armor i've ever seen on a human being yep you know and so dodge rolling probably not the most comfortable thing to do um it probably doesn't keep rolling. Yeah, I know. It's just like a roly poly. He's like, somebody stop me, but you can also Perry in this game. And so for anybody that has played games like, you know, the Arkham games, I don't know if Spider-Man does this, but like, you know, you get a little flash, a little alert that somebody is about to hit you and then you can hit the Perry button and then your guy will parry that attack.

And that usually leads to you doing some kind of counterattack or execution move or something like that. Initially, I was like, oh, okay, cool. Yeah, I can parry, but I don't need to do that. This is the shooter. But you quickly realize that dodging and parrying become pretty darn important if you want to actually survive in this game. If you want to live. No, game. If you want to live. No, definitely. Especially when you get those.

I mean, because they did a good job. They threw a lot of enemy types at you. So there's all these different kind of ways you can be attacked. And some of them are pretty tough. They can come in with two swords and they can block and they can attack you. So you got to be ready to Perry cause they're quick. So they'll, they'll charge up on you. They bring the fight to you and you can't play range game there cause they're right up in your face, you know?

And so you have to pair, you have to defend yourself and you have to use the melee attacks. Otherwise you're just going to get nuked, you know? And so, uh, it definitely comes into play quite often. Yeah, it really does. This is not tactical melee. So for you Dark Souls fans like me, this is not where you are really timing it and being well aware of when you attack and when you don't. This is just swinging into the hordes for the most part,

being aware of you do need to parry. But again, they give you a big alert in that regard. And audibly too. I think you hear like a... it's like a shriek or something in the distance and they do they do have it where it's like some attacks you have to just dodge they have like a red indicator versus a blue indicator and stuff like that but it you know with the hordes on screen the melee combat the gunplay that you need to parry you need to do this there is this is chaos dude like honestly there's the best way it really is in the best way yeah like i felt like like i will say that you know we played the campaign on the veteran difficulty and i feel like at almost the entire time i was playing that i was on the verge of death, but somehow was still surviving, you know, with like being two hits away from dying, but somehow just making that last stand

and waiting through the horde, you know, you'd go down, but your buddy could res you and bring you back kind of thing. Um, if you died three times, you'd have to restart from a checkpoint at that point. Um, let's move on to the actual guns for a second. I don't want to get too in the weeds on this, but the guns, in my opinion, felt meaty. They felt weighty. You do get different types of guns. You get a bolter. You get a heavy bolter. You get a sniper. You get an Inquisitor Carbine, you get a something, something carbine. My problem is that almost all of the automatic weapons and the pistols in this game felt so similar to each other that it almost didn't matter to me. Am I crazy or did you feel that way too? No, that's fair.

I was looking at it when I was looking at loadouts and then the weapon types i'm like oh okay this is plus you know this is uh four damage this one's six damage but this has a fire rate of this i'm like okay so i was trying out different stuff it honestly they all kind of felt the same i just used you know the bolt rifle or the auto bolt rifle whatever one i had on me at the time and it just felt perfectly fine i was able to handle anything um the only difference was the flamethrower you get a flamethrower at one point to kind of clear out a bunch of these little you know rugs or whatever the little hordes and uh and that was different it was cool but other than that you know it's just kind of a standard gun and and you didn't really need to change um

it all it all definitely felt the same kind of kind of in that combat mode this is a part where i started to actually feel a little disappointed because in my mind i thought like a shooter like this the weapon type is really going to matter you know and i did i did legitimately feel like there's probably i don't know seven of these different just guns you know whether they have different names and they're you you know, they're all automatic except for maybe the pistol, you know, that kind of thing. But I just remember kind of going like, why would I use that gun? It's just like the gun I have, you know? And so I remember thinking like, especially with how much melee there is, you want the little interactions you do have with ranged combat using a gun to be memorable, to have feeling.

And the only one that maybe was a little different, the plasma pistol was kind of cool charging it up. But you can only do that for so long before you kind of get bored. The essence of it wears off a little bit. But yeah, I was a little let down on the you know the difference between the guns the variety of that part of it now you know it does it you you mentioned like a flamethrower you know you do get some slightly like for like a wider variety of weapon but they're not super prolific in that sense right and i mean for me i just went with the like the flame there's this thing called a melta where it shoots out kind of like a flame

blast that travels out a little bit once i found that i was just like dude this gun's the best gun in the game and like i would just stick with that no matter what you know but i do feel like they missed the mark but again maybe this is tied to lore and so they can't maybe that's just what there is right so it's like hey we can't. Maybe that's just what there is, right? So it's like, hey, we can't give you these fantastical weapons because they just don't exist in this universe. There are a couple. I just remember thinking, like, all these guns feel the same to me. Well, we don't need them anyways.

I am the weapon. Yeah, exactly. And I will say that there are four different types of melee weapons. They do feel slightly different again i mean you know one is a combat knife which is super fast and speedy and then you get like a thunder hammer which is very slow and heavy but you're just mashing melee as fast as you can slaughter these so it's kind of again like yes there's a variety but they didn't really they didn't do much for me in that sense of the variety as well. So, okay.

The hordes, Ryan, we got to talk about the horde tech. This is one of the coolest things that I've seen. It is a good part of the gameplay. I mean, you're going to come up against a lot of these creatures in the operations. They throw waves at you. We'll get to the operations stuff a little bit later. There is multiple times in this game where you were walking your way through a level or something like that and then it's like here comes the horde you know and it's like you just look out and you see a thousand little creatures just swarming along the ground and up a ledge or something like that they introduced this very early in the game. This was freaking cool, in my opinion, man. Oh, so cool. Yeah.

I remember the first time I saw a horde just unloading, I think, every single bullet I had into the horde, and then they all made it to the wall, and they all climbed up, and then they killed me because I was out of ammo. And so there was this part where I was kind of like, wait, does it not matter if I shoot the horde? Because they always show that in all the the gameplay trailers uh-huh and then i remember like kind of being a little

disappointed again right i was like this looks really neat but if i can't interact with this horde like what difference does it make but then you and i did an operation and i kind of figured this out a little bit in the campaign where this game does this neat thing where when they hoard is coming after you they climb up these walls and if you were paying attention you can actually shoot them off of the walls that they're climbing up anybody that's seen world war z and the zombies like swarming up the the the walls of uh israel or whatever it was i can't remember the city they were in it's's kind of like that. Yeah, it looks just like that. There is a massive amount of these things. And so if you start shooting into them,

you'll actually kind of lower the level of where they're climbing up. And that's when I was like, wait a minute, I was wrong. It does matter. It does, yeah. I loved when they'd come up to the walls. I was always grenade, grenade on whatever sides,

just chuckle. And it was so cool to see just that little pot because the pile starts and then they start like climbing on each other like you said and just to see a clump of them just poof poof out the side and you see all these dead you know guys going off um you know and then it does lower you know then they have to build back up their little kind of uh wall or human ladder that they're making or not humans but um little ladder that they're making to climb up the wall but and you can you can pick them off as they're there and then eventually you know you get overrun a little bit and and usually you've killed enough to get through that section but it was cool to see the horde uh tech that they have where with

the swarms the way they come it reminded me of um remember jurassic park when yeah all of those animals come running over um over that hillside and they just what it's like there's a huge horde that's what it looks like you see them in the distance um and this kind of falls into the graphics again too just how beautiful the depth is too you just see these hordes way off in the distance running to another section of whatever battle's going on and you see stuff flying across in hordes and then you see the ones that are coming at you that you have to fight so um yeah the the swarm tech the way they have done this is is really really neat it is one of the more impressive things that i've seen in a game and there are times where sometimes the swarms are just decorative

you'll see a swarm of like flying creatures off in the distance, you know, but this is, this is where the kind of awe factor comes into because it's not only the swarms that are coming at you and that you're fighting. And we've talked about the vistas and the, the, how good the graphics are, but sometimes you'll just see a swarm off in the distance fighting an entire battalion of like humans, you know, with tanks and lasers and all that stuff and you can just sit there and watch for a while and you're just like dude this is the craziest thing i've ever seen yep all those just non-stop lasers and then the bugs flying in yeah it was i did that a few times just stopped and watched a battle you feel like you were in this war like honestly i don't know that another game has made you feel like you are actually... Halo

is a good example. Gears of War, you do kind of come across those areas where you have allies that are fighting, but nobody does it like Space Marine 2 does in my opinion, man. This is definitely standalone on that aspect of it. You do. You have that weight of just

there's a battle here, there's guys here. Everyone's got their own kind of thing they're doing, and you can watch and see how they are fighting and then go about your part of the story. Well, this is still kind of going on. Yeah. All right. So I touched on the kind of lack of the variety of guns in this game. And that's not to say that there's not a variety of guns. It just did like most of them didn't feel different to me. I think what caught me most off guard with the gameplay of this game, and I kept kind of waiting for it to happen and it just never happened is to me, I kept waiting for the upgrades. You know, I beat a mission. I made it back, right? We, we survived this crazy mission and these hordes of creatures

and oh my goodness you know we we escaped by the skin of our teeth our adrenaline's pumping we're sweating you know just like oh my gosh what just happened but we survived we made it back and it's like victory and then you're just back at your base and then i remember thinking like okay cool well where's my new skills yeah mr skill tree wants his upgrades i mean i it's true though right i'm a huge fan of skill trees oh yeah but i kept going like cool where's my upgrade right like where's my skills like don't i get a new ability we should say every character you you play these kind of famous characters. And so you do have a triggerable ability. And if you play solo, you will have two AI controlled bots. You're a squad

of three, no matter what the AI is not bad in this game. I don't mind having them at all. In fact, I kind of needed them because they're great at rezzing you when you die, which they saved me a lot. Yeah. Which you will die. This game is not easy by any means, or at least not on veteran difficulty. But I just kept waiting for the upgrades. You know what I mean? Am I getting stronger? Am I getting cooler? Where's my new abilities? Do I get something else? And the only thing that you get as an upgrade in this game are the occasional new weapon. Yeah. But when the weapons don't really feel that different unless it's a flamethrower versus a rifle or maybe a sniper versus a flamethrower

i kind of just went like that's it you know like i mean don't get the game is fun right but it's like am i like why am i doing this if I'm not getting better in that regard? Did you feel that way at all? Heresy, treachery, traitor. What are you? I know. Dude, don't let anybody hear that. What are you doing?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know what the- What do you need? What upgrades? Bro, you're a freaking ultramarine, man. What do you mean you need upgrades? I know.

I just, it felt anticlimactic to me yeah like to to beat a mission to get through this and then not getting like you know give me some experience points man i honestly for me honestly i i know you love skill trees you know you love the upgrades and progressing through um i i don't mind that that much because to me i get so locked up the paralysis by analysis i don't know what to pick i don't want to pick the wrong thing i don't want to not use the meta you know and in the right stuff you know that that deals the most damage and whatnot so not having to deal with that not having to think about it And I just go out and I just kill swarms. I kind of like that.

It vibed with me. I get that. Yeah. So it's funny because I'm complaining about the lack of upgrades. You know, we're playing the campaign, you know, and it's like,

dude, I'm the same guy I was at the beginning of this campaign. I'm not any stronger. I can't shoot lasers out of my eyes. Now, you know, I can't jump. I can't double jump in the air. You know, none of this cool stuff that I was expecting to be able to do beat the campaign

say, okay, cool. We beat the game. There's these operations that are a major part of the game, right? They talked about it before the game ever released. They say, Hey, I do remember seeing that they advertised that when you play the operations, there's six missions. When you play the operations, this is where you get to pick a class, right? And then you can kind of play these different classes to find the kind of class that suits your style and all that.

So I want to get into the game modes part of this because this kind of fixed things, right? Oh, I think it did i and i felt stupid and i i intentionally said what i thought because i kind of want to bring this up to other people that might feel like i did okay the campaign in this game is about seven hours long eight hours long it's not long. It's impressive as all get out. I think if you are a Warhammer 40K fan, it's going to mean a lot more to you than it did to me. But I remember kind of like clapping my hands and being like, all right, I did it. I beat another game. And then, all right, let's check out these operations, right? And we get into the operations

and I'm like, cool, I get to pick a class. Dude, the operations are where this game is at, in my opinion. It is the game, right? I mean, I don't know how I didn't realize this because I was so focused on the campaign. But after the fact, if you pick this game up and you play this game, the game is not the campaign. Like as crazy as that sounds for me, the operations were the game. And I said this to you literally yesterday when you and I were playing, but I said, I almost think this is like call of duty. You don't buy call of duty to play the campaign and then set the game down. Yeah, exactly. You buy Call of Duty because you want to play the multiplayer, right?

And it's like, I feel like if you only played the campaign in Space Marine 2, it's equivalent to buying a Call of Duty game, playing the campaign, and then putting the game away. Which would be unheard of. Well, that seems like the craziest thing ever, right? Exactly. So for me, the operations thing ever, right? Exactly. For me, the operations are where I got my variety. There's classes.

Guess what? Every class has a different ability. You know, you get to level up these abilities. Yep. I was freaking Thor, dude. Yeah,

you were, you know, uh, you know, and it's one of those things where it's like, I found this class that does this rocket kick with like a grapple hook. Oh if that is one of the most satisfying things I've seen, man, like, but the operations I think are where the actual gameplay loop is in Space Marine 2. And I hate that I discovered it a little too late in the game. I mean, it doesn't mean that we can't play it more, but I just mean for the purposes of this episode and the podcast, if I had only played the campaign, I would have felt very differently about this game than if I hadn't dove into the operations with you and played a lot of those and started to see the upgrade path and how you can improve your guy and get these different

perks and traits and difficulty levels and mission types and stuff like that. So the public service announcement from all of this is the campaign is not what Space Marine 2 is overall, in my opinion, and I'm pretty sure you feel the same way. Definitely. And we didn't get a lot of time on any PvP stuff. So we just mainly played the campaign and then operations. And I feel the exact same way. This is what made the game. And I love the way they did it. To where it's not just some random thing.

They just say, oh, go kill these swarms and whatnot. It's offshoots of the main campaign story. So when you're playing through the campaign, you're in your regular missions, you're running through as Titus, and, oh, this relay needs to get taken care of over here, and we're sending a squad to it. Well, when you run those operations,

you're that other squad. So you're still doing kind of the objectives within the campaign, but you're not the main storyline which is so cool because you still feel like it's a part of it's a part of the uh the story but you're doing something totally different and then you get all these upgrades you get these different um classes you can be and different ways to attack and things you can do so i thought this was such a cool part and it takes the game from something that's just cool.

That was a really neat game. I enjoyed that. That was a fun eight, nine hours or whatever to, okay, I want to play more. I want to get back and do more of these. These are really, really neat. Let's see what crazy mess we can run into. I know last night on our operation,

we were moving a battery. So you have to charge up a battery and you run it along tracks. And there's these kind of swivel plates that you have to shift on this track to move it down the way. And there's swarms everywhere. Josh spins it. And then I was just standing behind it, protecting it. And then he spun it the way and I was standing too close. So it started moving. and then we had to do the whole thing again because we had to move it back turn it around move it back to that section and josh is like no what are you doing what you're going the wrong way he says we're going the wrong way oh he's drunk i'm just trying to survive i'm sorry yeah i'm 50 guys i got like no health no shield i and you

mentioned before dude getting so close to death i can't tell you how many times where i didn't see any red left on my health bar and i and i waited to do an execute because i don't know if we mentioned this but when you execute you get back based on the kind of difficulty of the enemy, you get back an amount of your shield. So I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to find an execution real quick. And I go execute, get a couple things to shield back, and then go from there and try to find stems to heal. But there were so many times I was so close to death. But yeah, the way these operations run is just, it's awesome. It really is.

This is where the game is at, in my opinion. If you're going to pick this up and play it, enjoy the campaign for what it is, but just understand that there is a lot more game to be experienced and that does fix a few of the complaints that I had about the campaign in that regard. All right, listen, we got to take one more quick break before we kind of get into the end of this episode. We're going to get into our leaderboard rankings and a couple other things real quick,

but let's take a break and we'll be right back. All right, Ryan, I think we've covered just about everything in this game. I do have a question for you. Lay it on me. What do you think stands out as the best part of the game? And what do you think stands out as the worst part of the game? That's a good one. I think for what stands out, it's really hard to look past the graphics i think it's it's just like we said it's top two or three ever that i've ever played the cinematic uh sections and then just the vivid

detailed colors in gameplay uh or look of the gameplay and everything not only just the environment or the area but the movement the the combat is so fluid and beautiful everything you do looks as it should and so that to me is is the thing that really really stood out um i think the weak point of the game is the campaign and again it may be different if we knew a lot more about the series and about all the lore and the deep cuts of everything, but we don't. And it doesn't really cover a lot of it and doesn't give us a mountain of backstory to where we really know what's going on. So I would say probably the story is the weak point, but man, you just can't get past those graphics. I'm with you 100%. I think that

the world that they built in this game or the way... I mean, I know that the world already existed, but the way that they represented this Warhammer 40K universe is spot on. I mean, from the level of detail, the characters, the voice acting, even know, I mean, even how the voices are different and how gritty things are in this war that you're in with the Tyranids and that kind of stuff is so impressive to me without even knowing all the lore and stuff like that. But I mean, just this world that they crafted, it just feels right in that opinion. And we've heard this from people that know 40K and they're just like this is the game i have been waiting for like oh my goodness this is the game i'm a huge dnd fan

balder's gate 3 to me is like what i think this game probably is to like warhammer 40k people right it's like somebody finally made a game that captured what dnd is and like the rule set and turned it into a video game and And I feel like this is what people have been wanting that are into that Warhammer 40K universe as well. And we've heard nothing but positive things from them. So I think that to me is one of the things that stands out. I will say I'm with you. I think the campaign is actually kind of the weak point of the game. And again, I think you hit the nail on the the head it's probably just that we don't know the the the universe and the characters and we can't really get invested in that regard

yeah i didn't like that there were and like an upgrade path or that i felt like i was getting stronger my only other and this is a minor complaint the combat in this game is really really good but there were a few times where i was just like, I mean, how many of these things can I just wade through? You know, like the enemy variety is okay. Like, you know, you definitely fight more than just the base, you know, alien guys or the Tyranid guys. And again, I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a decent enemy variety. But I will make the comparison to like Helldivers 2 where the combat in Helldivers 2 never got stale to me, just because of the different stratagems that you could bring in and what would happen in between one mission to the next. And oh my goodness, this happened and you friendly fired your guy or your mortar killed me or something like that. Whereas in Space Marine 2, there were times where I felt like the combat even though it was chaotic at times was almost a little too routine at the same

time does that make sense? It does you kind of get into a different section of the map or of your area you're going through you get a swarm two or three elites you know if you will knock those out and then it's kind of on to the next session so it is kind of

a rinse and repeat you know with a little bit of flair here and there but it did seem kind of repetitive as far as that goes yeah and i think that's repetitive is a good point and again that's not it's not like a huge negative but i do remember at times feeling like okay i've done this like i've already done this you know give me a new creature give me a boss give me an upgrade which is where a piece of gear yeah which is where if if there was a big variety in the feeling of the guns then you could like change all right i'm going to use this now and then that could kind of spice it up a little bit but yeah unfortunately those all felt the same too all right ryan was this game what you thought

it was going to be we talked at the very beginning of the episode what did you hope it was going to be but was this game what you thought it was going to be after playing talked at the very beginning of the episode, what did you hope it was going to be? But was this game what you thought it was going to be? After playing it, do you look back at it and go, yeah? Or is it like, dude, I didn't know. This is way different than what I thought I was getting myself into. Kind of both. I think it was... Go ahead. I was going to say, maybe a better question question is what's a game that this game is like right like in that regard like if somebody's like okay cool like i'm not into 40k like i don't play a ton of like these weird horde melee combat shooter things because you know the hell divers

two is the only other one out there like maybe unless you're getting into Left 4 Dead or something like that. But what's this game like? Give me another game to compare it to. It's hard. It's almost kind of like with the amount of melee you have, you do kind of get almost like a God of War vibe where you're going in and you're killing kind of groups. But then it's also it's huge swarms. So it's a little different.

You're not battling kind of just two or three enemies at a time. So it's, it's a hard, I was trying to think yesterday of what a good comparison would be, but I was having a little trouble. What, what did you come up with? I, it's tough because the reason that this question came up is Paul actually hopped in and watched us play a little bit last night and that was his first question right wow this game looks really good okay yeah like and then he said okay so like what's this like give me another game that this game is like and we kind of both went uh i mean it's not hell divers yeah it's not hell divers mixed with gears of war which is what we initially thought it's kind of like a halo campaign in a way.

Yeah. You know, where you are just kind of, it's linear. You're kind of moving from point A to point B and shooting a lot of things as you go along. He said, is it like left for dead?

And I kind of went, no, because yes, you are fighting hordes, but you don't have the kind of special creatures like you have in left for dead and you're not scavenging for anything other than ammo. And I just kind of went, huh? Yeah. What is it like? I don't know. I would say this is probably equivalent to like a Halo campaign. That's

honestly like the best thing I could say, but with less variety, there's no vehicles. There's not, I mean mean the levels and the vistas are awesome but a lot of this is just takes place in like these rundown cities with crumbling buildings or like metal complexes and stuff like that kind of like halo halo um gears kind of like maybe a little little bit of splash of gears maybe just the heaviness. I don't know. That's kind of the point, right? Because it's like, I don't know what this game is like. It's like Space Marine 2, I guess.

Yeah, it is. That's what it's like. It's like Space Marine 2. Yeah, I would say probably if I had to, if you're forcing me to pick something, I would say this is like Halo meets Left 4 Dead, in my opinion. You're fighting these hordes. You're trying to survive. But you have this kind of story-driven campaign that you're doing.

I do not think the campaign of Space Marine 2 is even close to Halo, in my opinion. I think Halo has a fantastic story. Then again, they've had multiple games to kind of flesh that out, too. So maybe that's not a fair comparison. But that's the closest comp I got. Yeah. I that one too all right ryan that's it man we've covered everything we can cover i think uh about space marine 2 it is time to find out what we actually thought about this game so we're gonna go to our leaderboard we're gonna rank it do you know where you're gonna rank this was this a hard know where you're going to rank this?

Was this a hard choice for you? Did you have to kind of think it over? Or was this an easy one for you? Easy in kind of a range. Yeah, that was me. My score itself has been very fluid on every minute I think about it. So it's going up and down. I guess let's get to it. What's my score going to

be? I think this game is graphically beautiful. It's breathtaking. One of the best I've ever played. I think the combat was great. Doing it in a group as co-op or doing the operations is what really saved it for me. Not that I wouldn't have liked it just from the campaign, but those aspects give you that wow or those oh moments when crazy stuff happens that really kind of make it to that next tier. So I'm going to put this pretty high up. It's not way up there,

but I'm going to put this as a 8.9. 8.9? All right, that's pretty high up there, man. Yeah, it's not way up there but i'm gonna put this as a 8.9 8.9 all right that's pretty high up there man yeah it's pretty up and with and with the operations that's what really brought it up there i don't think because of the lacking um length of a campaign and the depth of a real real you know kind of gripping story that really makes you feel when a guy dies or something happens throughout um that would have got into the nines if it was really up there but without that i'm gonna i'm gonna say an 8.9 is a fantastic game i would say absolutely check it out if you love shooters if you love games of this ilk and i and i guess this is kind of standalone like we said but it is it is definitely highly recommended from me 8.9 puts

it in the exact same range as risk of rain 2 satisfactory diablo 4 x defiant and fortnight for you yep yeah i see a trend in those games ryan and you and i are literally thinking even though my score is slightly different than yours i I think we're looking at this game exactly the same way. I am going to rate this game an 8.6, which for me is going to put this game into the exact same tier as Diablo 4, Halo Infinite, Splitgate, Demio, Dead Island 2, and a few other games. The reason for that is the games that I just mentioned are all a ton of fun to play. Yep. I do find them to be rather shallow in a grand scheme of things,

but they're just fun games, man. Yeah. Like Dead Island 2, you do nothing but slaughter zombies and it's some of the most stupid fun that you could have in a video game. I am super, I recommend Dead Island 2 to people all the time because it's like dude if you want to just have a good time perfect game space marine 2 is exactly that if you want to

just have a good time be impressed by what you're doing have those kind of jaw-dropping moments this is it man yeah like you got 30 40 minutes hey hey dude you want to get on an operation real quick hop on and it's you're gonna have a blast yeah and i do feel like there is a shallowness now i know that i know that there is more to the operations and it's like i know that there are little things that you can come across but i think the majority of people are probably not going to realize that. Shout out to Disratory, but he was talking about this game and he was like, dude, it's really cool that the executions are different if you're behind the creature or in front of the creature and you can

parry, but then you have a perfect parry that can happen. So there are mechanics that go a little bit deeper, but I'm not that into this game for those things to matter to me like i'm your average gamer that just bought this game because i was hyped for it i played it this is the experience i had with it you know in that regard but it's just fun yeah it's just a fun slaughter things be this eight foot incredible space marine dude play this campaign that has some bananas moments have you pick your jaw up off your desk because some of the graphics in this game are absolutely mind-blowing and then you're gonna kind of just put it away you know like i we'll probably do another operation or two you know

but it's like you could spend a lot of time on those but i for me those would get repetitive after a while i know that you can step up in difficulty and the increase the challenge and all that stuff but that's just doesn't interest me that much yeah but it's just a fun game and so i'm ranking it with other games that are just fun to play and so i think if you go into it looking for that you're gonna enjoy this and have no issues with it whatsoever yeah Yeah. That's two solid scores. I'd say. Yeah.

8.6 and 8.9 are pretty high up there to be honest. And I mean, like I said, when we're ranking this in the likes of like Diablo four, uh, you know, dead Island to halo infinite and some of these other, that's an easy, that's an easy recommendation,

um, from us. So, all right, well, listen, that is it for us. We've gone a little bit long,

but Hey, you know, if you like, uh, if you like space Marine two or Warhammer, I'm sure you're, you're, well, listen, that is it for us. We've gone a little bit long, but Hey, you know, if you like, uh, if you like space Marine two or Warhammer, I'm sure you don't mind at all. As a quick reminder, please remember to follow the podcast, uh, in your podcast app. It's a plus in Apple, a follow on Spotify or whatever it is, but that way you make sure that you get notified of our new episodes. If you liked this episode and you want more like it, remember to leave us a review. You can rate us five stars on Apple. You can leave us a written review, but reviews are what help people find the show. And that keeps us going as well. And remember to follow us on socials at Video Gamers Pod. On all social platforms, we post

articles, game reviews, lots of stuff like that. It's just a good place to keep up with us as well. And don't forget to come and join our Discord server. That link is in the episode description. Dude, we had like eight new people join in the last two days. And it's awesome, man. I love the gaming conversation. It is a fantastic community. There's no toxicity at all. There's no politics. There's none of that stuff that gamers get sick of. This is just a community of people that love games

and love talking about games. So don't be afraid to jump in there. You're more than welcome to lurk, but we just, we love building that community as well. All right, that's it. We will be back in a few days with another episode. Ryan, there's rumor that maybe it's a Forza Friend episode coming up. Maybe.

We'll see. Oh, that would be nice. No promises, but it might be time, buddy. All right, well, listen, until next time, happy gaming, everybody. For the Emperor. See ya. Courage and honor!